In Place

Jenn Monroe’s poem “Office Hours,” is part of the Chester College series of “In Place” videos at Extract(s).

Words of the Week

Week #12: 4/23-4/30

Kerfuffle: informal chiefly Brit. Commotion; disorder; agitation.

Example: “He was jerked out of his reverie by a sudden kerfuffle on the far side of the nearest trees.” –sentence.yourdictionary.com/kerfuffle

Aphotic: 1) Lightless; dark.

Example: “I sat curled up on the sofa, trapped in the dream from which I had begun to awaken, but still lost in the reminiscence of our aphotic rendezvous.” –Zakalin Nezic, Goodbye Serbia

Ensconce: 1) to settle securely or snugly, 2) to cover or shelter; hide securely.

Example: “They ensconce themselves in their child, in adding and replacing furniture, in discussing insurance and finally buying some.” –Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead

Littoral: 1) pertaining to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean.

Example: “There was an exuberant fierceness in the littoral here, a vital competition for existence.” –John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Adenoidal: 1) Being characteristically pinched and nasal in tone quality.

Example: “’Quite the good, old-fashioned type of servant,’ as Miss Marple explained afterward, and with the proper, inaudible, respectful voice, so different from the loud but adenoidal accents of Gladys.” –Agatha Christie, Three Blind Mice

Barnburner: 1) something that is highly exciting or impressive, 2) Chiefly Pennsylvania. A wooden friction match. 3) (Initial capital letter) A member of the progressive faction in the Democratic party in New York State, 1845-1852.

Example: “’A real barnburner—look, you got me sweating buckets.’ Jason’s sitting on the curb with his teammates.” –Craig Davidson, Rust and Bone

Fard: 1) to apply cosmetics.

Example: “She’s farded inch-thick with affectation. She’s perfumed to suffocation with the musk of pretence. The colour on her cheek is part paint, part mock-modesty.” –Mary Cowden Clarke, The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines

~Chelsea Paige is a senior Creative Writing major at CCNE. After graduation, she will be moving to Wisconsin, where she hopes to submit writing to every publication that will read her work, and hopefully get a few acceptances amid the storm of rejections. She also plans to continue working in libraries until she has so much experience they can’t help but hire her as a director somewhere.

Submit Here

Paragraph Line
Submit Here: short stories, flash fiction

Air in the Paragraph Line Issue 13

Paragraph Line is a literary journal of absurdist and outsider fiction, with a heavy emphasis on not publishing “the usual.” They are big fans of William S. Burroughs, Raymond Federman, Mark Leyner, Charles Bukowski, and Hunter S. Thompson. They like low-lifes, junkies, dope-heads, strippers, whores, beats, degenerates, and the marginalized. They publish online regularly, along with a “best of” print (and ebook) anthology regularly. They are privately funded and not affiliated with any school or writing program, which means they’re very different from traditional journals.

Air in the Paragraph Line Issue 10

The journal truly started in 1996 with Jon Konrath. It wasn’t until 2005 that Paragraph Line became what it is today. Konrath started publishing work he enjoyed reading, the kind of fiction and fact that kept him glued to the pages, in hopes that others would like it too.

Paragraph Line accepts short stories and flash fiction so you should pull out your weirdest and send them in. Also, check out their recently published stories. With titles such as “Hitler’s Suicide (as told by a Hipster),” “The Remorseful Hatchet,” and “How Internalized Shame Influenced the Choice of My First Sex Partner and Led Me to Cheat on the Boyfriend I Really Liked,” how can you resist?

~Meg Cameron is a Chester College senior obsessed with submitting work at literary journals everywhere.